Sigston Castle

Sigston Castle is a medieval earthwork in the village of Kirby Sigston, North Yorkshire, about 6.5 kilometres north-west of Northallerton. It stands 400 metres north of St Lawrence Church and has been a Scheduled Monument since 1946. The site includes ridge-and-furrow field patterns and buried remains of a medieval village beneath the present village. Together with the castle ruins, these features provide evidence about medieval farming and rural life. The land was bought in 1313 by John de Sigston, who also acquired Winton Manor 1.5 kilometres to the north. It is thought the fishponds at Winton Manor supplied fish to the castle. John de Sigston built a castle surrounded by a moat, now dry. Only earthworks, foundations, part of the ringwork and the square keep survive. The keep measured about 30 by 25 metres, and the moated area covers roughly 140 metres north–south by 110 metres east–west. Visitors see grassy banks marking the old moat and the foundations of the keep. The ringwork rises gently above the surrounding fields. Ridge-and-furrow patterns from medieval ploughing are still visible in nearby farmland. The church and village of Kirby Sigston lie close by, giving a sense of the medieval landscape in which the castle once stood.